


Lessons from the Mountainside

by Lannakitty



Category: Leverage
Genre: Bromance, Episode Tag, F/M, Humor, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-28
Updated: 2011-06-28
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:05:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lannakitty/pseuds/Lannakitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parker seeks help dealing with the events of 4x01 in her own way. Eliot wishes she'd just let him sleep. Episode Coda for the Long Way Down Job (4x01)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons from the Mountainside

**Author's Note:**

> One of those things that just happened to work well and flowed. Eliot and Parker as Bros. Some of the same soft shipping as the show. They're all so much fun!

Eliot wakes when the TV turns on. He is reaching for the weapon he keeps concealed in the headboard when he hears a cascade of cereal hit a bowl. Eliot relaxes and groans into his pillow. The TV changes to something with loud explosions, possibly a cartoon, and he gets up, dresses, and heads into the other room.

"Parker." He's growling and he doesn't really mean to, but it was a late night and he'd been looking forward to sleeping in a little. "It's five-thirty am."

Parker looks up from her perch on the couch, cereal in hand. "Morning."

Eliot growls again and goes to the kitchen. Half an hour later, he's made omelets. He sets a plate on the coffee table in front of her and takes the remains of the too-sweet cereal away. He doesn't buy such things, but Parker does and keeps boxes in everyone's home as far as he knows.He eats at the breakfast bar while animated space marines in giant robot ships of some kind defend the earth from blue people. He doesn't know what she's watching, but it's on the Scifi channel, so he's betting she learned about it from Hardison. Unless it was one of those weird Parker things.

Parker sets a video camera down on the counter across from him and takes a seat.

Eliot eyes the camera and placidly chews. She's squirming just a little bit, trying to work out what she wants to say, active fingers tapping on his counter in time with the music from the TV.

"I don't know what to say," Parker finally says, deflating. She taps the camera. "I tried but it all comes out wrong. Or not at all." She rests her elbows on the counter, chin in both hands, and pouts epically.

Eliot scratches the bridge of his nose. "What are you trying to do?" He'll start with the basics, figure it out, and solve the problem - or send her to Nate. Or Sophie. He hopes he doesn't have to send her to Sophie. It's not even seven am, and that would mean he'd heard something he did not want to hear.

"It's a message. For if I get stuck on the mountain."

Eliot blinks. She's drawing designs on his counter with the condensation from his glass of water.

"If you- For if you don't make it back?" The trip to Alaska, he realizes, had really made an impact. He wonders what that meant for the future, if she'd continue to question if their ability to accept was a gift or a curse. Or maybe this was her way of accepting that she and Eliot could do what the others couldn't.

Its too much for six-fifteen on a Sunday.

She nods. "I left a message for everyone. Yours was really easy. Then I did Sophie's and then I did Nate's."

"And you're stuck on Hardison."

Parker nods again. The water has made some kind of paisley, her nails drawing out small details. She crosses her arms and sits back on the seat.

He wonders if he can pawn her off. This is so not his thing. "Why aren't you asking Sophie?"

""Cause we're bros."

"Bros."

"Yes. We are, aren't we?"

Her eyes have started to do that huge, questioning thing and he can't say no and crush her. Eliot closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and counts to five. He lets it out to the same count, opening his eyes again. She looks a little anxious. Eliot can tell because he's known her for so long. There's a tiny little tightness around the corner of her eyes, the set of her jaw. And while they might not be the right genders for it, it's as good a word as any. And he guesses it kinda fits in a Parker way.

"Yeah, Parker. We're bros."

She smiles, a sudden flashing grin. "So help."

Eliot scowls. "Why aren't you asking Sophie about this?"

"She's not like us."

He understands then. If Sophie is doing her job well, and she usually does, she's not being punched, kicked, shot at, grabbed or otherwise physically assaulted. When she leaves for a job, she expects she'll come home without a scratch. Of them all, Parker and he are the least assured to come home. Like the climber in Alaska, he's rehearsed the speech. Not recently, but he has in the past. Eliot bets Parker never considered it before she started working with Nate's crew, but now she has people, and now she understands.

She shifts in her chair. "They need us to be us. We can do it, so we have to." She's frowning a little. "And if we're very good, then all of us together can do the right thing. But they need us to be us."

"Yeah. They do," he agrees. Parker isn't quite settled into the idea, but he feels less anxious about her than he did a moment ago.

"What do I say?"

Eliot lets out a long breath. "Well," he says, drawing the word out to give himself more time to think. "You're saying goodbye forever. Tell him what you feel because that's the last chance to say anything."

Parker is quiet, thinking that over. The silence continues long enough that Eliot finishes his omelet and loads up the dishwasher. It's humming along in the background when he can feel the shift in her demeanor.

"How do I talk to him after I've said goodbye like that?"

Eliot took his seat again. "You're not really saying good bye. It's like when Sophie pretended to die so we could catch that other crew."

"That was weird."

"Parker," Eliot stops when she looks up at him with genuine fear. He growls to himself and wipes a hand across his face. "If Sophie were here, I think she'd tell you to live the goodbye."

"That makes no sense."

"Hang on and listen. You say what you feel right? So you go ahead and live that feeling. You let them know. So if, God forbid, you don't come back from a job sometime, the people left behind accept that last message."

"But if I say goodbye then it's all over and I don't want to leave."

Eliot's lips compress into a line. "Parker it's not like a normal goodbye. You do it now, because you can't do it later." He beckons her closer and she leans in to hear the secret wisdom. "This one is special, because once you've done it, you still get to see everyone. And you can even change it. But if something happens, you don't need to be there in person to say goodbye. It's a little out of order, but that's part of what's so special about it. You understand?"

She studies him for a moment then nods. In an instant her serious demeanor has disappeared like morning mist. "Thanks for breakfast!" She picks up the camera and stands.

Eliot nods and waves her off, turning for his closet and his jogging shoes. Parker will let herself out. He stops, eyes catching the box with the little video camera Hardison gave him on a job last year. He reaches for the box and wonders if it still works. Oh well. If it doesn't then he'll get Hardison to give him another. He can run a bit later.

* * *

Parker sets the camera on the tripod and uses the neat little remote to adjust it. The video screen flips around so she can see what she's filming. She's holding Bunny because it helps her focus.

"Hi." She stares at the blinking red light. Say what she feels? What does she feel? "I hope you get this, because that means you got out. I hope everyone else got out, too." She taps her fingers against Bunny.

"I hope I got pretzels," she finally blurts. It's stupid to her own ears but there are words she can't seem to be able to say. Hardison will understand. "You get my normal." She takes in a deep breath. "Thank you."

She pauses the video. Her hands shakes a bit. There is more she wants to say, but she needs a moment. She feels like she does when she hasn't climbed a building for awhile. Things are tight. They ache. Parker needs to exercise to get back into things after a bad sprain or a break. Maybe this is like that.

She unpauses the video and tells him what she feels. It might not make sense to anyone else, but this video isn't for anyone else and he'll understand. Which is why she's making it for him.

When she doesn't have anything else to say. She turns off the camera and carefully packs it all up again. She settles Bunny on the bed and heads to Hardison's.  


* * *

 

Alec wakes when the controller clatters to the floor and he begins to fall after it. He catches himself before he hits the floor and lets out a breath, chuckling at himself. He'd fallen asleep watching whatever came on after Game of Thrones. He picks up his phone and checks the time. Early.

"Hi."

"Hey Parker." Alec jolts upright in shock. "Damn, girl."

"Can you make a copy of a video without watching it?"

"Uhm. Yes?"

She holds out a video camera and three memory cards. "I need to make copies of these."

"You take up movie making?" he jokes as he leads the way to his workroom. She's silent and he looks over his shoulder at her, worried. "You okay?"

She nods and hands him the video recorder and the SD cards. He pops them into his readers.

"Parker?"

"Don't watch."

"I won't," he promises. "How many copies."

"Two?"

Alec smiles a bit. "Can I know what they're for? Might be able to help you."

She's silent for Parker, which is saying something. He looks over his monitors at her. "Hey, you okay?"

"They're in case I don't- They're for just in case."

They're- Oh. _Oh_.

"I want to put a copy in my safe, but there should be another copy," she tells him. "There's one for each of you."

Alec nods and saves all the files to his vault. The data is backed up in triplicate and holds their most secure files. His most secure files. He opens a pack of USB thumb drives, pulls one out, loads the videos onto it and hands it to her with the little SD chips.

"Videos are on there and they're still on the chips. I saved another copy to my Vault and no one goes in there by me. But you have to promise me something." They're standing close and she looks like she wants to bolt. She stays to hear what he wants though. He puts a hand on her arm, lightly so she knows she can escape.

"Parker? I need you to promise me what whatever happens, you'll fight so I never have to see that video. I know we can't control everything, but I need you to promise to fight, okay?"

Her dark eyes are serious as she nods, solemnly.

"Thank you." He drops his hand, expecting her to vanish. He doesn't expect the fierce hug, the face burrowing into his shoulder.

He's surprised, but his hands come up to hold her. He thinks back to the mountain, to the hug they shared there, and this is much the same. Alec isn't sure he completely understands her all the time, but he's figuring out when she simply needs him to be there, Han holding Leia before the battle of Endor.

Then again this is heavy stuff. Maybe he needs her too.

She steps back, body language suddenly awkward. He gives her his best smile because it's okay, he'll be here. She smiles a little.

"So," he provides the out, the neutral ground, the places she can meet him. "I was thinking Lord of the Rings just came out on Blue Ray."

Her eyes light up and he feels about fifty feet tall.

"Can we watch at Nate's? And sit on our couch? Eliot will make popcorn."

He grins. "Absolutely." Alec has no doubt she can convince Eliot to make snacks. Nate will grumble then sit at the counter and pretend not to watch the movie. Sophie will glide in at some point and make commentary on the acting.

"I'll meet you there." She grins and runs out of the room.

Alec laughs and loads up what he needs to show the movie - Parker will let herself out. She's gone, unsurprisingly, by the time he gets there. He checks a couple places in his apartment on the way out, looking for bugs, before locking it down. They'll have an evening as friends but tomorrow Nate will have a new client or they'll find out more about these bugs that keep popping up. She's left the video recorder and Alec stares at it for a full minute. There's time for death later he thinks, but for now, he's gonna live.

~fin


End file.
